Monday, 17 November 2014

Grace is 15 and she wants to be a doctor. She walks 3 hours each way to school from her
village in rural Tanzania. When she gets home she has to collect water
and firewood for cooking before she can study by candlelight. Sometimes her parents can afford kerosene for
a brighter light but this hurts her eyes and makes her cough. Her parents are subsistence farmers and cannot
afford a £6 solar light. There are 72
students in her class and they haven’t had a science teacher for 6 months. There are a few text books in her school which
she copies from when she can, but they often use English words she doesn’t
understand and there is no one to help her.

When I met Grace in her school in September she had never used a
computer or the internet. I brought out
a hard drive packed with downloaded Open Educational Resources like Wikipedia,
Khan Academy and health materials, collated by World Possible so
they can be used offline. Grace was transfixed by the videos explaining the
circulatory system. She loved being able
to stop and rewind the bits she didn't fully understand first time. On Wikipedia for schools she was mesmerised by how
clicking on links brought up so much detail and how she could look up words she
didn't understand with a simple click. She said with access to such information
it would be impossible to fail.

Lucy is also 15 and aspiring to be a doctor. She too studies by candlelight, but that’s because
the smell of the scent helps her concentrate. She has a computer
in her room but generally prefers using her iPad. Her science teacher posts useful links on the
school intranet and she often collaborates on homework with her friends on
Facebook.

I am going back to Tanzania in January to help more girls like
Grace, taking with me taking
with me donated tablets that I will pre-load with Open Educational Resources
content - if you have any
surplus devices lying around please let me know and I’ll ensure they are put to
good use!

I am also buying £6 solar
lights - if you would like to buy one as a good gift this Christmas there is
information here. and you can buy one here.

I volunteer for Tanzania Development Trust, a small volunteer run charity - all
donations are spent entirely on projects. If you have a tablet that you would like to see put to good use in Tanzania please email me: j.chapman@tanzdevtrust.org

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About Me

Passionate about e-learning and its power to transform educational opportunities across the world. Interested in developing interactive and mobile technologies to facilitate collaboration and achievement.